THE EXPERIENCES AND CHALLENGES OF ENGLISH LECTURERS  IN DEVELOPING DIGITAL COMPETENCE IN THE CONTEXT    OF HIGHER EDUCATION DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Vu Van Chinh

Vu Van Chinh	chinhvv@fe.edu.vn	FPT University Hoa Lac High-Tech Park, Km29 Thang Long Avenue, Hanoi, Vietnam

Summary:

In the context of higher education digital transformation, lecturers’ digital competence shapes pedagogical innovation and professional development. In Vietnam, many studies mainly describe tool use, while paying limited attention to lecturers’ experiences and developmental pathways, especially in foreign language education. This study examines how English lecturers understand, develop, and construct digital competence and identifies the personal, organizational, and cultural factors that influence this process. Adopting a phenomenological approach, data were collected from 18 lecturers across three universities through semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and document analysis. Findings show that digital competence is primarily built through self-learning and peer collaboration; key barriers are a controlling organizational culture and limited institutional support, whereas leadership guidance and internal professional communities facilitate development. Based on these findings, the study proposes the EFL-DigCompVN model and the CR-DCM concept, extending DigCompEdu by emphasizing contextual sensitivity and offering policy implications for English lecturers’ digital professional development in Vietnam.

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Keywords:

Digital competence

English lecturers

digital transformation in education

phenomenology

professional development

artificial intelligence.

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Journal:

No. 2, February 2026

VIETNAM JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

THE VIETNAM NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

THE EXPERIENCES AND CHALLENGES OF ENGLISH LECTURERS IN DEVELOPING DIGITAL COMPETENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGHER EDUCATION DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION